Old photograph of Whittinghame Tower, East Lothian, Scotland. Whittingehame Tower was built on lands belonging to the Cospatrick Earls of March. In the 14th century the lands were acquired by the Douglases. During the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, they were held by James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton. The property subsequently passed through the hands of the Setons, Hays and Balfours of Balbirnie, who occupy the castle still. Arthur James Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905, belonged to this family. It is said that in 1567 the Earl of Morton, the Earl of Bothwell, the future husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and William Maitland of Lethington, the queen's secretary, were entertained here by the owner, Archibald Douglas. They conferred together in the shelter of a yew tree in the grounds to plot the murder of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, Queen Mary's unpopular and increasingly estranged husband. Morton, just returned from exile in England after the murder of David Rizzio, was unenthusiastic, and requested the queen's direct guidance. Despite the queen's reluctance to give the matter her sanction, the plot put together at Whittingehame was put into effect in due course. However, the hatching of this plot is more commonly thought to have taken place at Craigmillar Castle in late 1566. Mary's half brother, the Earl of Moray, was received at Whittingehame by Morton and Lethington about 18 months later, and they concurred with his expression of horror at the murder of Darnley. Bothwell was by then an outlaw.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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